Apple’s Future, FedEx’s Record, and McDonald’s Beat: Market Recap

The markets closed up today on Wall Street, following a one-on-one weekend meeting between President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) that produced the same, semi-optimistic soundbite from both parties: “the lines of communication remain open.”

At the close: DJIA:+0.11%, S&P 500:+0.03%, Nasdaq:+0.30%.

On the commodities front, Oil (NYSE:USO) fell 0.29 percent to $85.68 per barrel. Precious metals were up, with Gold (NYSE:GLD) climbing 0.46 percent to $1,713.30 per ounce, and Silver (NYSE:SLV) climbing 0.48 percent to $33.29 per ounce about seven minutes after the bell.

Here’s your Cheat Sheet to today’s top stock stories:

McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD), the world’s largest fast-food chain, announced better-than-expected same-store sales for November, signaling a turnaround from a dismal October. (Read more.)

$900 is Coming! Its stock may just have come off its worst week in four years, but Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) fundamentals remain strong and give reason for optimism, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster told CNBC… (Read more.)

Record Breaking Holidays: With 19 million packages set to pass through its system on Monday, FedEx (NYSE:FDX) has labeled December 10 as the busiest day in its history. Workers are expected to process more than 200 parcels per second, and FedEx anticipates that the trend towards increasing package volumes will continue for the remainder of the holiday season… (Read more.)

Are You Ready for QE4? Despite recently launching a third round of quantitative easing, the Federal Reserve is once again expected to announce another bond buying program this week. The additional easing would replace Operation Twist, an asset purchase program where the central bank sells short-term notes to purchase long-term notes. However, its replacement will likely be outright bond buying, as the Federal Reserve is running out of short-term notes to sell… (Read more.)

OECD Predicts Mixed Growth for Major Economies: The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development released its December Composite Leading Indicators report, and it’s a whole bag of mixed news. Most of the euro area, Japan, and Russia face weak growth, while the United States and the United Kingdom seem to be on track for stable recovery. (Read more.)